AFP via MailOnline: The UN special envoy for Syria faced an uphill task in Geneva on Monday to get talks to end the brutal civil war off the ground, as the opposition hesitated to join negotiations with the regime. The urgency to find a solution to the four-year war was brought home Sunday when multiple explosions killed 71 peo...

The Guardian: After half a century of military-dominated rule, Aung San Suu Kyi has led her National League for Democracy (NLD) party into Myanmar’s parliament, taking a majority of seats and starting the process of installing a democratically elected government. Aung San Suu Kyi has waited more than 25 ...

BBC: David Cameron and European Council President Donald Tusk are set for a "crucial" day of talks about the UK's renegotiated membership of the EU. A meeting on Sunday night ended without a deal, though a Downing Street source said there had been a "breakthrough" on restricting benefits for EU migrants. Mr Tusk said "intensive work" would be neede...

The Guardian: The rural, snow-frosted landscape of Iowa is so sparse, the horizon so broad and the sky so huge that weather can declare itself with great ceremony. Rain, sleet and snow don’t just happen to you here – when the clouds part, you can see them coming.As Iowans gather at caucu...

CNN: Gunmen riding motorcycles raided a Nigerian village under the cover of darkness, killing at least 46 people and setting homes ablaze, officials said. The Boko Haram militants armed with machine guns opened fire on Dalori village near Maiduguri, relief officials said.

NYT via Economic Times: Iraqis seeking to withdraw money from banks are told there is not enough cash. Hospitals in Baghdad are falling back to the deprivation of the 1990s sanctions era, resterilizing, over and over, needles and other medical products meant for one-time use. In the autono...

Independent: The leader of Germany’s main right-wing anti-migrant party has caused political uproar by insisting that the country’s border police should be authorised to shoot at refugees trying to enter the country illegally. Frauke Petry, the 40-year-old...

RFI: French President François Hollande has pardoned a woman who was jailed for 10 years for killing her husband. More than 400,000 people signed a petition demanding the release of Jacqueline Sauvage who was abused by her husband for decades. Hollande met Sauvage's daughters and lawyers on Friday and anno...

AFP via The Telegraph: A teenager's 15th birthday party became the scene of a ghastly massacre in southern Mexico where 11 people were fatally shot, officials said on Sunday. The shooting occurred on Friday at a "quinceanera" coming-of-age celebration in the Mexican state o...